Electrical connectors generally refer to connection elements and accessories applied to electronic signals and power sources. An extensive definition of connector further includes receptacles, plugs, cable erection, and the like. In view of electronic packaging, a connector is an element with interconnection parts that can be engaged/disengaged or replaced. In other words, the connector is a bridge between all signals, so the property of the connector influences an operation quality of the entire electronic system.
A card edge connector is disposed on a main circuit card of an electronic apparatus, for various modular electronic cards or printed circuit cards to insert, so as to achieve an electrical conduction between the electronic card and the main circuit card, thereby expanding the performance of the main circuit card.
In recent years, the speed of CPU is continuously increased, from the early 33 MHz, 66 MHz, to Pentium III 500 MHz, and to the latest Pentium 4 3.06 GHz, and the electronic signal transmission speed of motherboard and computer peripherals is increased accordingly. Therefore, high frequency electrical characteristic of the electronic connector responsible for a bridge for electronic signal transmission becomes an important subject for electronic connector manufacturers.
However, high frequency signal transmission always means high power consumption, and high power consumption easily incurs problems of undesirable heat generation and accumulation. The working environment of high temperature always influences the working efficiency of electronic elements, thereby reducing the life time of the electronic elements.
Therefore, it can be predicted that in future heat dissipation problem must be an important subject for high frequency card edge connectors.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a conventional card edge connector before being combined with a circuit card, and FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the conventional card edge connector after being combined with the circuit card. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional card edge connector 100 includes a housing 110 having two opposite ends 111, 112 and a card slot 113 disposed between the two opposite ends 111, 112. A latch 120 is disposed on each end 111, 112. A printed circuit card 200 can be inserted in the card slot 113, and a latch 120 is used to latch or eject the printed circuit card 200. The latch 120 includes a body portion 121 and a head portion 122. The body portion 121 is pivotally mounted on respective ends 111, 112 of the housing 110, and ejects the circuit card 200 by pivoting. The head portion 122 extends from the body portion 121 for latching and positioning the circuit card 200.
After the circuit card 200 is inserted in the card edge connector 100, due to the characteristic of high-speed transmission of the current connector or the influence of high-speed operation of the modular circuit card itself, a heat dissipation fan is usually disposed above or beside the circuit card 200 to avoid accumulation of heat. However, as a plurality of connectors of this type is disposed in parallel closely, no matter the heat dissipation fan is disposed above or at side edge of the circuit card 200, the airflow mainly advances along the direction of arrow A in FIG. 2. That is to say, the heat is carried away mainly along this direction.
However, due to the disposal of the two ends 111, 112 and the latch 120 of the card edge connector 100, the heat dissipation airflow is often blocked before reaching the two ends 111, 112 of the connector 100, such that heat is accumulated at the two ends 111, 112 and cannot be effectively dissipated. Therefore, the temperature of working environment of the circuit card 200 and the card edge connector 100 is increased, thus influencing the working efficiency and lifespan.